The Whiplash Hypothesis

In 1967, Marine officer Sam Weber is sent on a top secret mission to destroy an enemy arms depot run by a wealthy Chinese named Sing Han. There Sam meets Sing Han’s daughter, Liang, who helps him escape. In 1984 Sam and Liang meet again and fall in love. Sing Han has been plotting for years to destroy the U.S economy by manipulating the global price of oil. Only Sam and Liang stand in his way. More

In the 1970’s the world experienced two oil shocks, as the price of oil rose from less than $2 a barrel to over $32. Early in 1986, in a three-month period, oil plummeted from $28 down to only $10. These violent fluctuations significantly altered the economies of virtually every nation on earth. When oil prices went up, they caused unprecedented inflation in the United States and changed forever the face of its industry and commerce. When oil fell back down, countries which export petroleum, such as Venezuela and Mexico, could no longer pay their debts, creating an international debt crisis. Economists cannot adequately explain how the price of oil swung up and then down as fast as it did. This novel poses a fictional explanation to that mystery, using actual characters and events as background for the fictional characters and plot.The book begins in Vietnam in 1967. The CIA has developed intelligence that points to an arms supply base in Laos. It appears that the North Vietnamese Army troops are being supplied with weapons as they travel down the Ho Chi Minh Trail on their way to the southern cities of Hue, Danang, Nha Trang and Saigon. A U.S. Marine lieutenant, Sam Weber, is sent on a covert mission to find the base and destroy it. He and a small team parachute into the area, and soon all are killed but Sam. Wounded and imprisoned at the supply base, he is cared for by Liang, the daughter of Sing Han, a Chinese who operates the base. With her father away for a few days, Liang and Sam fall in love, and she helps him escape. They promise to meet again at her home in Hue.But in the chaos of war, Sam is unable to locate Liang. He returns to the United States, becoming an oil company executive in Southern California. Liang immigrates to the United States, obtaining a college degree at Berkeley. She forms a successful electronics company, and then later is persuaded by her father to buy an oil services company.Sing Han, based in Hong Kong and Singapore, builds up a new business empire in banking, real estate, and oil. He becomes partners with Manuel Carvalho, president of a fictitious Latin American country called Esperanca, and contracts to export that country’s oil to international buyers. Esperanca, once destitute, becomes a major oil power as prices increase to over $30 a barrel.Sing Han has also cultivated an American politician named Clay Josephson, aware that he is the son of the U.S. government agent who unwittingly let Sing Han’s family die in Shanghai. Through bribery and blackmail, and ignorant of Sing Han’s connection to his father, Clay becomes his puppet.After seventeen years, in 1984, Sam and Liang meet by chance and fall in love all over again. All goes well until a murder pulls them into Sing Han’s elaborate plot to bring the United States to its knees. He plans to use Esperanca and Clay Josephson to drive the price of oil below $10, causing the formation of a Latin American debtors’ cartel. This will give the countries the strength to renege on over three hundred billion dollars of debt, causing widespread banking failures and economic chaos in the United States.As the climax approaches, Sam and Liang travel to Esperanca to try to prevent Sing Han’s plot from succeeding. The final chapters increase in drama as the two work behind the scenes to block the formation of the cartel and then escape from Esperanca as the country bursts into civil war.

Don Westenhaver planned to become a Catholic priest, but left the seminary and joined the Marine Corps. The Marines trained him to be a Vietnamese interpreter, but then assigned him to be a platoon radioman near the DMZ. Returning home in one piece, he used the GI Bill to buy a home and finish college. As a finance executive in the oil industry, Don traveled frequently to Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa. His military and oil business experiences inspired him to write his first novel, an international thriller titled The Whiplash Hypothesis.

Moving from the oil business to the car business, Don became a finance director for a Japanese auto company, gaining more inside knowledge of international business. During the 1990s, he became fascinated by the Asian Tigers, a group of former Third World countries such as Korea that were emerging into First World status. Inhabitants of very poor nations were suddenly enjoying huge improvements in their standard of living. He speculated that a relatively small amount of money could propel Vietnam into the same growth, because the culture prizes education and hard work. It only required an intelligent plan encouraged by a Communist minister who was secretly a capitalist. The result of this was Don’s second international thriller, The Red Turtle Project.

During a vacation in Italy Don toured the ruins of Pompeii, which display in such vivid detail the lives of ordinary people 2,000 years ago, and how the Romans were so similar to us and so technologically advanced. For the next four years, he studied ancient Rome and created characters and a plot that begins with the Great Fire of Rome. Emperor Nero, usually portrayed as a psychotic monster, actually began his reign as an enlightened teenager guided by moral principles. The plot of Nero’s Concert illustrates Nero’s descent into madness as told by his best friend. The backdrop is the Fire, the search for who caused it, and the collision of the new Christian religion with Roman culture.

Don has been married to his wife Ellie for over 37 years and they live in Southern California. They have two grown daughters and two grandchildren. Don and Ellie are recently retired, and plan to continue traveling, assisting four different charities, golfing, and of course playing with the grandkids. He is working on a fourth novel and is a member of the Southern California Writers Association and the Military Writers Society of America.